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home improvement
upgrades, upgrades. moving on up. i could call this post “living without stuff pt IV: cynthia decides to scrap the whole minimalism thing”, but that’s not entirely true. you see… by athens (the last couple days of a two month american/grecian travel whirlwind), i was so excited to get back to my own flat and just do normal life things. cook, read, hang out on the balcony… but since we’ve decided to stay at least one more year here in budejovice, we realized our living situation needed a little overhaul.maybe this is because of the “luxurious” american living we’ve experienced… or perhaps it’s more closely related to our renewed determination…
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summer of love
hi friends, thank you for your comments and wishes regarding the wedding and recent photo posts! i’ve been hanging out in my hometown for over a month now on a mini-adventure before heading eventually eastward again. my northwest summer, in a word, has been spectacular. i came here to get married, have a big party, reconnect with friends, eat and drink allthethings, and reconnect with the northwest; i feel like i’ve really done it… perhaps even a little too much on the food and drink– our waistbands are feeling slightly tighter than before, and as we are now headed to michigan, the end is not near. not only all these good…
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thoughts on heading home
heading to my homeland, the united states, in the coming week for the first time in ALMOST THREE YEARS. this isn’t exactly weird to me, because i’ve lived it, but i can see how it would seem weird to everyone else. i suppose when your life is weird, these weird facts just grow on you! two years and nine months solely spent in europe. blam. i can’t help but wonder if i might freak out when i hear english around me all the time. or what i’m going to do to busy myself on a long-haul flight because the real last big one i took was in 2011. or if…
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rainy krumlov
may first in many cities across europe means an all day party in the street in celebration of european labor day. may first in czech republic, well, that is probably one of the quietest days you ever did see… probably because everyone gets a bit wild for witches’ night the night before. but of course, i am awake. me, with scheduling a lesson pre 9am and deciding to head out to krumlov for the day. the streets of budějovice , especially usually bustling lannova třída were as dead as doornails. so, krumlov: also emptier than i have ever seen it, even in the dead of winter! the atmosphere was cool and…
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spring stories (from our czechpat life)
a big ol’ smattering of a spring update is here, now that it’s suddenly may and things are really happening! starting out freezing, peaking mid-month with warm temps, and ending on a cold rainy note, april in budějovice came and went. we postponed our “cabin in the nature” trip until the end of summer due to this, below left, from alex’s birthday. (second out of three birthdays of his spent in czechland that have snowed!) spring definitely got a slow start here in europe this year. funny that now spring has sprung, everything has exploded with greenery and you’d never know it was like that at all. (see photos, at right)…
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biking bohemia
after getting my bike back in ship-shape just in time for the nice weather, i decided to take a first pedal of the year last weekend. the weather was supposed to be around 23°C and mostly sunny, and with alex busy, it was time for me to finally take the pedal to hluboká nad vltavou, the next town of any repute to the north, on what has been called the busiest cycle path in the entire country! it is an easy 12km from my house to hluboká, riding along the river vltava most of the time before veering off into the adorable village of bavorovice, then on along some ponds…
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wedding planning from abroad: 7 weeks to go
this is the point in the “wedding having” process where people are asking you, “how do you feel?!?!” and when your wedding party seem far more concerned about certain issues than you are yourself (thanks everyone!). but there’s no doubt in my mind i’m feeling cool and calm with less than two months to go before the big day. waiting a year and a half to have the wedding has turned out to be a really great decision: it really has allowed us to plan at a comfortable pace and only one thing so far has even felt close to rushed. some of my students asked me the other day,…
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on being a foreigner
like many of you i’m sure, the feeling of being in a foreign place feels so completely thrilling. but, there are times when that general excitement for life in a foreign place can turn downright tiresome. i have a weird hang-up and i suppose i will be honest and divulge it to you, my friends: sometimes i feel as though i don’t deserve as much (in general) as the local people do just because i don’t speak their language. take for example, a few days ago at a pizzeria. i had a few slices of pizza yet i wanted to take home, but i almost didn’t feel like asking for…
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třeboň + april weekends
how odd it was to go from a full day of snow to sunny and 18°C in one week! from winter coat to bare legs and sandals. but that’s april for you. (shrug) in case you haven’t yet guessed, we had to postpone our lovely little cabin trip ‘til august… ‘cause when the proprietor contacts you the day before to tell you “it’s like winter here!”, you listen. (we just took off for prague instead, which i’ll post about on tuesday) so with the forecast looking wonderful this weekend, we spent the afternoon in třeboň, only about a half-hour away. třeboň is one of my sobo (south bohemia) happy places. i love to…
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a tree blooms in žižkov
žižkov is one area of prague that i never really got to know on a personal level. it’s supposedly got the most pubs per capita of anywhere in the world and is well known as a place where expats congregate and live because of cheaper rents and um, said pubs. my prague expat existence never included ol’ žižkov as i was swept from crumbling kolbenova to plush malá strana in one day (and ohhh, what a day it was). but a part of me can’t help like i missed out on the experience, with our schmancy st. nicholas cathedral and trdelník on demand (well, we were pretty broke then; i…
